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BREAKING OVERNIGHT – AP: “Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the 4-day-old crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.” http://bit.ly/i4034S

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that radiation has spread from the four troubled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear complex. “Though Kan and other officials urged calm, Tuesday’s developments fueled a growing panic in Japan and around the world amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next,” AP says.

THE LATEST BLAST – Tuesday’s explosion was the third in four days at the Fukushima nuclear complex, and “for the first time raised the possibility that the key containment structure of the unit, which protects the reactor vessel and keeps dangerous radioactive materials from leaking out, had been damaged,” WSJ reports. http://on.wsj.com/hOpor0

FIRE AT NO. 4 – Japanese officials say that a fire at the plant’s fourth reactor was put out just after noon local time. That reactor had been turned off and was being worked on for the past several months. “But the plant contains spent fuel rods that were removed from the reactor, and experts guessed that the pool containing those rods had run dry, allowing the rods to overheat and catch fire. That is almost as dangerous as the fuel in working reactors melting down, because the spent fuel can also spew radioactivity into the atmosphere,” NYT says. http://nyti.ms/eRPQzI

WORST-CASE SCENARIO – “A 1997 study by the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island described a worst-case disaster from uncovered spent fuel in a reactor cooling pool. It estimated 100 quick deaths would occur within a range of 500 miles and 138,000 eventual deaths.” Second NYT article: http://nyti.ms/gWqUsP
EXPLAINERS – WSJ has a pair in today’s paper. The first is a look at exactly how a nuclear reactor works: http://on.wsj.com/gORDVq; the second is on the type of radiation Americans are exposed to on a daily basis: http://on.wsj.com/fxSjp2.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Energy. Keep the tips and insights coming to Josh Voorhees at jvoorhees@politico.com.

ENTER STEVEN CHU – The Energy secretary will be on the Hill today at 10 a.m. to talk about his agency’s budget with House appropriators, but the conversation will most likely veer quickly to the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan. Chu is known to be a big supporter of nuclear technology and has often spoken of it as an international market in which the U.S. should again be competitive. Tomorrow, he will be joined by NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko in testifying before two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees.

THAT’S ONE – It looks like Fred Upton and Ed Whitfield will get to unfurl the “bipartisan” banner at the end of today’s Energy and Commerce vote on their EPA-blocking bill. Georgia Democrat John Barrow tells ME that he plans to vote aye when the time comes. “I have concerns about the whole approach in this area,” he told POLITICO’s Robin Bravender yesterday, adding that he’d like to see a sustained commitment to energy R&D. Barrow’s defection is not exactly a surprise; he was one of 13 D’s who voted for a CR amendment to handcuff EPA earlier this year.

MUM’S THE WORD – The other two most high-profile Democratic fence-sitters – Utah’s Jim Matheson and Arkansas’s Mike Ross – weren’t ready to end the suspense yesterday. When asked, Ross declined to comment and Matheson said he’d still yet to make up his mind. “We’re still working on amendments,” Matheson said. “We’re still negotiating.”

GOP UNITED – Upton and Whitfield can expect to have the votes of all of their Republican colleagues on the panel. New Hampshire’s Charlie Bass, a moderate on environmental issues who was seen as a potential wild card, said yesterday that he’s aboard the EPA-blocking train. “Yes, I’m going to vote in favor of it,” Bass said in the type of clear-cut response reporters in scrums everywhere like to hear.

SCIENCE POP QUIZ – Democrats have promised they’ll look to force an uncomfortable vote or two during the amendment process today, but they’re still keeping the details close to their vest. Still, Henry Waxman may have offered a bit of a spoiler yesterday. The California Democrat told POLITICO’s Darren Goode that it would be “helpful to have the committee on record very explicitly” about their views on climate science. “I think the bill is basically… a science denial piece of legislation,” Waxman said. “If that’s where the members want to be they ought to be clear about it and held accountable.”

HEALTH TEST – Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin told ME that D’s are also considering something along the lines of the language offered last month to the budget resolution from Jared Polis. The Colorado Democrat’s amendment – which didn’t get a floor vote – would have allowed EPA climate rules to proceed if the administrator determines those rules are necessary to protect public health or the environment. (The Obama administration determined in 2009 that greenhouse gases do pose such a threat.)

FACT CHECK – The Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact says that Upton’s claim that his bill will help stop gas prices from climbing is a false one. “[T]he impact of the bill – if there is one – would be years away. And there's no proof that the law would actually stop gas prices from rising.” http://bit.ly/hFJzXY
CADBURY EGGS, PEEPS AND A FLOOR VOTE – Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters yesterday that the House will vote on Upton-Whitfield by Easter recess.

SNAKE BITTEN – Obama’s energy agenda appears to be jinxed, reports POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn. “[J]ust as the president had to explain his newfound support for offshore drilling, which came just weeks before last year’s BP oil spill, his administration must again defend an energy-related industry even as images of explosions at two Japanese nuclear reactors loop on cable television.” http://politico.pro/dIkJFX

STANDING FIRM – Administration officials insisted yesterday there are no plans to shift U.S. energy policy away from nuclear power in the wake of the disaster. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, at the daily White House press briefing, said safety is of “paramount concern” to the president but that the nation’s 104 reactors would keep operating.

LEADING PRO THIS MORNING:

--Patrick Reis and Darius Dixon report that Japan’s nuclear crisis has raised an uncomfortable question for advocates of a carbon-free future: Without nuclear, how do you provide a steady backup to the intermittent generation of renewables like solar and wind? http://politico.pro/h3KxSj

--Darren Goode has a look at how the nuclear industry could learn a thing or two from the oil and gas industry’s PR effort in the wake of last summer’s BP spill. http://politico.pro/i2r1Pr

TRACKING NEI – CNN followed the Nuclear Energy Institute’s top lobbyist, Alex Flint, around the Capitol yesterday as he attempted to reassure concerned lawmakers. A few highlights: 150 or so Senate staffers showed up to an afternoon briefing hosted by NEI and Exelon; the industry reps gave a similar briefing for aides to House E&C and House appropriators; and the industry handed out an 11-page document that “was clearly designed to quell concerns.” http://bit.ly/hPofiz

GOP (STILL) HEARTS NUCLEAR – Republicans in both chambers yesterday made it clear that they weren’t going to let the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan scare them away from an energy source they see as crucial. A few of the highlights:

Jim Inhofe: “I don’t think we have a nuclear problem just because of what happened in Japan. … Once in 300 years, a disaster occurs and they’re all waiting for it and the Japanese are calm and collected, and only the politicians are hysterical.”

Eric Cantor: “As far as we know, this is the result of a tsunami. Nuclear power is an essential mix of the energy economy in this country.”

Lindsey Graham: “I don't hear a moratorium to stop building along the coast. I don't hear a moratorium to stop building high-rise buildings in earthquake areas. You try to make buildings as safe as possible. You learn from every national disaster, but most of the reactors that are being built now are light years ahead of the 1971 version.”

Richard Burr: “I liken this very much to New Orleans when it flooded. And we learned afterwards that everybody’s generators and storage tanks were on the ground – the worst place to be in a city below sea level. We may find out the same thing in the case of Japan: that they were just strategically placed wrong, or we may find out some engineering changes that should be made and we’ll work to make those. But I don’t think that this is a death knell for nuclear generation in the future.”

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MEANWHILE – Henry Waxman, Ed Markey and friends yesterday called for an investigation and hearings into the safety of U.S. nuclear plants. In a letter to E&C Republicans, the D’s expressed skepticism about industry statements that U.S. plants have adequate protection from dangers such as earthquakes and tsunamis. The letter: http://bit.ly/hj5dwc

KERRY’S GOT SOME Qs – “I think serious questions have to be asked about what the hell nuclear plants are doing 40 or 50 yards from the ocean on a fault and whose idea was it to build it there in the first place, so a lot of questions,” John Kerry told reporters yesterday. “But no community in America is going to accept a plan without fail-safe guarantees that are in the design and in the location.”

HEY, LOOK WHAT WE FOUND – The Guardian newspaper dipped into the diplomatic cables from the last WikiLeaks doc dump and turned up a cable from October 2008 titled “MP CRITICIZES JAPANESE NUCLEAR PLANS.”

J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan at the time, wrote that Taro Kono, a member of the Japan’s lower house of parliament, “voiced his strong opposition to the nuclear industry in Japan.” Kono “criticized the Japanese bureaucracy and power companies for continuing an outdated nuclear energy strategy, suppressing development of alternative energy, and keeping information from Diet members and the public.” Kono was also supposed to do a three-part television interview, according to the cable, but he claimed it was canceled after the first spot because “the electric companies threatened to withdraw their extensive sponsorship.” http://bit.ly/e9bOq2
AND A DASH OF Y – Another interesting tidbit in the cable was Schieffer’s note of Kono’s confusion over the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. “He cited Japan's extensive seismic activity, and abundant groundwater, and questioned if there really was a safe place to store nuclear waste in the ‘land of volcanoes,’” Schieffer wrote. Japan doesn’t have a permanent storage site for its nuclear waste. “Kono said that in this regard, the US was better off that Japan because of the Yucca mountain facility. He was somewhat surprised to hear about opposition to that project, and the fact that Yucca had not yet begun storing waste.”

LIGHTNING ROUND:

--New York state’s top geologist says that he hasn’t found any reason to believe fracking has led to groundwater contamination. http://bit.ly/fkkJwZ

--Analysts say that NRG Energy’s $10 billion nuclear plant expansion in Texas may be a casualty of the repercussions from Japan. Reuters: http://reut.rs/h0Rg7C

HAPPENING TODAY – The House is expected to pass the latest stopgap spending bill, a three-week continuing resolution with $6 billion in cuts. GOP leaders, facing a light rebellion from their right flank, say it will be their last short-term measure. Jonathan Allen has the details: http://politi.co/erFgXy

PLANNING AHEAD – Fred Upton, Cliff Stearns and Ed Whitfield penned a letter yesterday to OMB director Jacob Lew seeking documents concerning a loan guarantee DOE awarded to Solyndra, in what is sure to be a preview of Thursday’s investigative hearing into the department’s stimulus practices. Solyndra became a favorite punching bag for stimulus critics after the president toured the company’s California facility in 2009 only to have the company close down one of its solar panel factories, laying off workers many believed the stimulus money was supposed to protect. The Republican signatories want the specified documents handed over by March 28.

PERSONNEL MOVE – FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff yesterday appointed Judge Steven L. Sterner as a FERC Administrative Law Judge. Sterner has been an Administrative Law Judge with the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals at the Department of Health and Human Services since 2005. More: http://1.usa.gov/edrPjg

CARBON FORUM – The International Emissions Trading Association wraps up its two-day event today. Speaking: DOE’s David Sandalow, Conservation International’s Peter Seligmann, U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission general counsel Dan Berkovitz, Rep. John Garamendi and House Ag Chairman (and Upton-Whitfield co-sponsor) Collin Peterson. POLITICO caught up with Peterson earlier this month to ask him what he’s going to say. His response: “Hard to say. I'll decide when I get there. A guy from my hometown, or his parents were, he talked me into it. I'm not going to talk about carbon markets. I'm going to talk about derivative regulations.”

10 a.m.: BOEMRE holds a public workshop in New Orleans to talk about new requirements for offshore oil and gas companies to develop and implement Safety and Environmental Management Systems. http://bit.ly/g4Gr1e

10 a.m.: The House Natural Resources’ water and power subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on the spending, priorities and missions of the four power marketing administrations: the Bonneville Power Administration, the Western Area Power Administration, the Southwestern Power Administration and the Southeastern Power Administration. 1324 Longworth

10 a.m.: The Nuclear Energy Institute holds a teleconference to brief reporters on the events in Japan and plant safety in the United States.

11 a.m.: API holds a press teleconference to brief reporters on the group’s “thorough process of creating industry standards for operations that include hydraulic fracturing, deepwater drilling and pipeline safety.”

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